The Nigerian authorities are letting the crew of a detained VLCC make only two short calls a month to their families, says the head of a seafarers’ group.
Abhijeet Sangle, working president of the All India Seafarers Union, said the 26 crew members have been left “mentally disturbed” after more than six months of detention.
They have been kept on bail on board the 300,000-dwt Heroic Idun (built 2020) off the coast of Nigeria on charges in connection with an alleged attempted oil theft and filing a false piracy report. The seafarers are under the control of the Nigerian Navy.
The charges stem from an incident in August when the ship left an offshore terminal in Nigeria’s Akpo oilfield fearing that an approaching vessel was a pirate ship. The ship was in fact a Nigerian naval vessel.
The tanker left the area and was subsequently stopped by the navy of Equatorial Guinea. After three months in detention in Equatorial Guinea, the ship and crew were escorted to Nigeria’s Port Harcourt, where the men face trial on a date to be confirmed.
Some of them have made brief trips to Port Harcourt for court hearings.
While on board, the 16 Indians, eight Sri Lankans, a Pole and a Filipino are given only limited contact with their families, said Sangle. He said in a LinkedIn post this week that it was “pretty disgraceful” that the case has not yet been resolved.
“The authority onboard [is] giving permission to talk with home once in 15 days for 10 minutes,” he wrote in an email.
The case is due back in court next month while lawyers for the men try to get the Ray Car Carriers-owned vessel and its crew freed. The Nigerian legal system includes provisions for plea bargaining.
The Heroic Idun’s insurers and managers, charterer BP and international shipping organisations all say the crew have done nothing wrong.
The International Chamber of Shipping described the detention as “unacceptable” and called for the crew’s release.
Nigerians go to the polls on Saturday to replace President Muhammadu Buhari, whose administration vowed to tackle rampant oil theft during its final months in office.
